Metal, Tea and Blogs
This evening Helaine invited me to tea along with Maria Gamundi and Shelley Robzen at her studio. It was so lovely and really interesting. I felt privileged being allowed into an inner sanctum with these 3 established sculptors, who are all so generous with their time to me and interested in what I have to say and think.
We also talked about my (this) blog! Johannes Von Stumm, President of the RBS, had told Helaine that she must read it (he has also sent me some lovely emails too including: “I am glued to the screen and enjoy it very much.”) so she looked it up and apparently was quite surprised and impressed with it. She thought the RBS should put it in their weekly ebulletin!
Shelley also mentioned that she had read what I had put about my visit to her studio, and was really touched. She even said she might want to quote it in a catalogue some day. She also said that the way I wrote it was great as it made her fell right there with me.
It is strange as, being a visual artist, and never being very strong at the humanities at school (I was always more of a scientist) I don’t really think that I’m any good at writing. However, the process of keeping this blog has been very interesting. I find myself thinking what I should write about and how to capture the various experiences I’m having. It seems to be a way of digesting and analysing the whole experience. At times I think about the audience, and how to interest them and draw them in. But most of the time I try to forget that anyone might actually be reading it (especially anyone I might know!)
It was great hearing them reminiscing about their early days in Pietrasanta, when there were only a few artists, and even fewer who were women. Tales of endless massive delicious meals; Of long discussions between artists in the marble workshops; and things they had learnt that are still relevant to the way they work today.
However it did remind me that one of the things I’d expected to be doing here on my residency, which as yet hasn’t materialise… I’d been told that Pietrasanta was such a mecca for Sculptors that I’d imagine I would be having long discussions about sculpture and art over meals or drinks – but it is hard to intergrate into a community just like that, so I think I need to make more efforts to invite myself into other people’s lives! That said, I have been invited out to dinner tomorrow evening with some of the artist from the life class, so maybe it is just one of those things that takes time.
I was actually a bit late for tea as I’d got so absorbed in my work in the metal workshop that I’d lost track of time. I must have missed the 5pm siren when we were re-sandblasting my first bronze, which is really very nearly finished. Massimo had been helping me with all the things I can’t do. The 2 small figures are soldered back into place, and it is attached to its purpose built new brass base.
It was fascinating how effortlessly and quickly Massimo sorted out the base. I probably took nearly as long to decide the exact positioning of the piece, he then marked of the 3 leg positions using a marker pen. With the sculpture upturned, he marked a small hole using a rotary tool in the the centre of each leg by eye, then used a drill to make a hole. He then took a hand tap (I just had to look that up online to find out what it was called) and cut the thread.
Again by eye he marked the centre of the marker pens circles left on the base (with a quick glance back at the holes in the sculpture base to cross check – particularly as one the the legs joined the base at an angle making more of an oval shape). It amazed me that he did it all by eye, and is probably far more acurate than I would be if I tried to measure it all accurately. 3 holes were drilled, 3 brass screws were cut down to the exact size required, the burs all tidied up, and the base was screwed into place – simple – when you have 37 years of experience :)
